International students in Australia: read ten thousand volumes of books and walk ten thousand miles

A number of international students, predominately from Asian countries, are present in universities in the UK, United States, and Australia. There is little research exploring their experiences as they negotiate the disciplinary requirements of their courses. This paper investigates students' agency as they write their first assignment for their Master's of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course and the academics who teach them. Talk around texts and the positioning theory are used to analyse the data. It is argued that the students demonstrate strategic agency, which allows them to better understand the academic requirements of their disciplines. The analysis reveals the complexities involved in international students' adaptation to disciplinary discourse and the implications for teaching and learning in higher education.

Of personalities and personae: a French victory for film producers and authors

The international medium of film poses many challenges for authors and copyright owners. So do the practices of the advertising industry. Each jurisdiction approaches these challenges differently. In a recent French decision three issues that are of interest in Australia were discussed – the copyright status of a literary or dramatic character, the use of such a persona in character merchandising, and the moral right of film directors to control the exploitation of the persona. This article examines the 2004 decision of the Paris Court of Appeal in the matter of the film “The Fifth Element”. It compares the protection offered to author and copyright owner under French law with the protection offered by Australian legislation and common law.

Tales of mystery and the mundane: children’s books in 2013

Part of a commissioned series reviewing notable cultural productions of 2013

Burning books and burying scholars: on the policies of the short-lived Qin Dynasty in ancient China (221-207 BC)

In 221 BC, the battle-hardened warriors of the Qin state, the western frontier state and the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states, thus establishing the Qin dynasty, with itscapital in Xianyang, near the modern Xi’an. The Qin dynasty is customarily regarded by Chinese and Western scholars as the beginning of a new age – the Chinese empire – that lasted until 1911 AD. The dynasty lasted only fifteen years. This study examines the main policies of the Qin dynasty and seeks to address the question what brought the quick downfall of the Qin rule. This paper takes the cultural and political contexts carefully into consideration, and argues that the Qin annexation of its rival states might be better understood as an end of an old era as much as a beginning of a new epoch.

Measurement invariance of English and French Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) empowerment scales validated for cancer

PURPOSE: If measurement invariance (MI) is demonstrated for a scale completed by respondents from two different language groups, it means that the scale measures the same construct in the same way in both groups. We assessed MI of the French- and English-language versions of the five Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) empowerment scales validated for the cancer setting. METHODS: Data came from two cross-sectional studies of Canadian cancer survivors (704 English, 520 French). Single-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test whether the hypothesized factor structure of the French-language heiQ empowerment scales fit the data. Multi-group CFAs were conducted to assess different levels of MI conditions (configural, metric, scalar, strict, as well as MI of factor variances, covariances, and latent means) of the French- and English-language heiQ empowerment scales. RESULTS: The correlated five-factor model showed good fit in both language groups (goodness-of-fit indices: CFI ≥ .97; RMSEA ≤ .07). Goodness-of-fit indices and tests of differences in fit between models supported MI of the five-factor model across the two language groups (∆CFI ≤ -.010 combined with ∆RMSEA ≤ .015). CONCLUSIONS: The French- and English-language heiQ empowerment scales measure the same five dimensions of empowerment in the same way across both language groups. Thus, any observed similarities or differences between French- and English-speaking respondents completing these scales are valid and reflect similarities or differences in empowerment across language groups, not measurement artifact. Consequently, heiQ empowerment data from English- and French-speaking respondents can be directly pooled or contrasted in data analyses.

Evolution of telecommunications and mobile communications in India: a synthesis in the transition from electronic to mobile business

This books tackles issues of e-business with a vision to the future on how to bridge these gaps and close down the barriers between the different corners of the world"--Provided by publisher.

Kristeva and an archaeology of sources and translation

Pinder examines Julia Kristeva's essay "Stabat Mater," a focus of psychoanalytical, historical and cultural concepts which require very careful consideration. In order to illustrate the complexity of these linguistic and cultural interrelationships, she looks first at Kristeva's own original essay in French to see what light her method of construction may throw on her particular ideas, then examines some translations of the essay into English to see if there is anything lost by attrition or gained by accretion.